Ardrumo--Kelly Staricha

Using piezos, I made a basic drum kit that uses the knock sensor readings that the Arduino program interprets as letters, and the processing program then reads the letters and triggers production of drum sounds. I chose to have five drum pads which correspond to different drum sounds:

(Sensor 1) Blue = Kick

(Sensor 2) Yellow = Bass

(Sensor 3) Pink = Snare

(Sensor 4) Green = Cymbol

(Sensor 5) Orange = Heavy Snare

I downloaded the sounds as wav files from www.Free-Loops.com. The sketch can be modified to play basically any collection of sounds.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Basically, when you hit the drum pads, the piezo sensor sends information to the arduino and if the sensor reading is greater than the designated threshold, the arduino program will serial print a letter. The processing program has declared downloaded wav file sounds in it. When it reads the letter on the serial buffer, it triggers the designated sound to play.

Other information about my program/project:

-The green alligator clips connect the negatives (breadboard to black piezo wire) and the other colored alligator clips connect the positives (breadboard to red piezo wire).
-I used resistors that were around 1 M ohm, and just adjusted accordingly by trial and error.

Problems/Fixes:

-I discovered that each time you start the program up from scratch you have to re-save the processing program in the LoadSample file and then save the sound data file within that new folder you create, or the program won't be able to import the sounds.

-Make sure you use the plastic Duralar sheets or another firm surface between the foam pieces or the piezo won't be responsive all the time.

-If you are hearing multiple sounds or getting some dead spots on the pad, try changing the strength of the resistors.

If I had more Time or Money...

-I think it would be cool to make a bunch of arduino instruments to go along with my drums like maybe a keyboard, guitar, etc.

-I also might have attempted to make a rockband-like program for the computer with processing so that it would tell you which notes to play to make a beat or song.

-I probably would have also played around with different sounds assigned to the drum pads other than drum sounds.

Circuit--Schematic Diagram Representation:

(This is a representation of one of the piezos. For my project it's this same circuit 5 times with piezos connected from GND to Analog Pins 0-4)

Drum pad in process-first I hot glued the Duralar to the bottom foam piece,
then used duct tape to secure the piezo (without the plastic covering) in the center of the pad,
then glued the next foam piece on top.